1.
Scotland
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Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and covers the northern third of the island of Great Britain. It shares a border with England to the south, and is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east. In addition to the mainland, the country is made up of more than 790 islands, including the Northern Isles, the Kingdom of Scotland emerged as an independent sovereign state in the Early Middle Ages and continued to exist until 1707. By inheritance in 1603, James VI, King of Scots, became King of England and King of Ireland, Scotland subsequently entered into a political union with the Kingdom of England on 1 May 1707 to create the new Kingdom of Great Britain. The union also created a new Parliament of Great Britain, which succeeded both the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England. Within Scotland, the monarchy of the United Kingdom has continued to use a variety of styles, titles, the legal system within Scotland has also remained separate from those of England and Wales and Northern Ireland, Scotland constitutes a distinct jurisdiction in both public and private law. Glasgow, Scotlands largest city, was one of the worlds leading industrial cities. Other major urban areas are Aberdeen and Dundee, Scottish waters consist of a large sector of the North Atlantic and the North Sea, containing the largest oil reserves in the European Union. This has given Aberdeen, the third-largest city in Scotland, the title of Europes oil capital, following a referendum in 1997, a Scottish Parliament was re-established, in the form of a devolved unicameral legislature comprising 129 members, having authority over many areas of domestic policy. Scotland is represented in the UK Parliament by 59 MPs and in the European Parliament by 6 MEPs, Scotland is also a member nation of the British–Irish Council, and the British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly. Scotland comes from Scoti, the Latin name for the Gaels, the Late Latin word Scotia was initially used to refer to Ireland. By the 11th century at the latest, Scotia was being used to refer to Scotland north of the River Forth, alongside Albania or Albany, the use of the words Scots and Scotland to encompass all of what is now Scotland became common in the Late Middle Ages. Repeated glaciations, which covered the land mass of modern Scotland. It is believed the first post-glacial groups of hunter-gatherers arrived in Scotland around 12,800 years ago, the groups of settlers began building the first known permanent houses on Scottish soil around 9,500 years ago, and the first villages around 6,000 years ago. The well-preserved village of Skara Brae on the mainland of Orkney dates from this period and it contains the remains of an early Bronze Age ruler laid out on white quartz pebbles and birch bark. It was also discovered for the first time that early Bronze Age people placed flowers in their graves, in the winter of 1850, a severe storm hit Scotland, causing widespread damage and over 200 deaths. In the Bay of Skaill, the storm stripped the earth from a large irregular knoll, when the storm cleared, local villagers found the outline of a village, consisting of a number of small houses without roofs. William Watt of Skaill, the laird, began an amateur excavation of the site, but after uncovering four houses

2.
History of Scotland
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The History of Scotland is known to have begun by the end of the last glacial period, roughly 10,000 years ago. Prehistoric Scotland entered the Neolithic Era about 4000 BC, the Bronze Age about 2000 BC, and the Iron Age around 700 BC. Scotlands recorded history began with the arrival of the Roman Empire in the 1st century, North of this was Caledonia, whose people were known in Latin as Picti, the painted ones. Constant risings forced Romes legions back, Hadrians Wall attempted to seal off the Roman south, the latter was swiftly abandoned and the former overrun, most spectacularly during the Great Conspiracy of the 360s. As Rome finally withdrew from Britain, Gaelic raiders called the Scoti began colonizing Western Scotland, according to 9th- and 10th-century sources, the Gaelic kingdom of Dál Riata was founded on the west coast of Scotland in the 6th century. In the following century, the Irish missionary Columba founded a monastery on Iona and introduced the previously pagan Scoti, towards the end of the 8th century, the Viking invasions began. Successive defeats by the Norse forced the Picts and Gaels to cease their hostility to each other and to unite in the 9th century. The Kingdom of Scotland was united under the descendants of Kenneth MacAlpin and his descendants, known to modern historians as the House of Alpin, fought among each other during frequent disputed successions. England, under Edward I, would take advantage of the succession in Scotland to launch a series of conquests into Scotland. The resulting Wars of Scottish Independence were fought in the late 13th and early 14th centuries as Scotland passed back, Scotlands ultimate victory in the Wars of Independence under David II confirmed Scotland as a fully independent and sovereign kingdom. When David II died without issue, his nephew Robert II established the House of Stewart, ruling until 1714, Queen Anne was the last Stuart monarch. Since 1714, the succession of the British monarchs of the houses of Hanover and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha has been due to their descent from James VI, during the Scottish Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution, Scotland became one of the commercial, intellectual and industrial powerhouses of Europe. Later, its decline following the Second World War was particularly acute. In recent decades Scotland has enjoyed something of a cultural and economic renaissance, fuelled in part by a resurgent financial services sector and the proceeds of North Sea oil and gas. Since the 1950s, nationalism has become a political topic, with serious debates on Scottish independence. People lived in Scotland for at least 8,500 years before Britains recorded history, glaciers then scoured their way across most of Britain, and only after the ice retreated did Scotland again become habitable, around 9600 BC. Mesolithic hunter-gatherer encampments formed the first known settlements, and archaeologists have dated an encampment near Biggar to around 8500 BC, numerous other sites found around Scotland build up a picture of highly mobile boat-using people making tools from bone, stone and antlers. The oldest house for which there is evidence in Britain is the structure of wooden posts found at South Queensferry near the Firth of Forth, dating from the Mesolithic period

3.
Monarchy of the United Kingdom
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The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the constitutional monarchy of the United Kingdom, its dependencies and its overseas territories. The monarchs title is King or Queen, the current monarch and head of state, Queen Elizabeth II, ascended the throne on the death of her father, King George VI, on 6 February 1952. The monarch and his or her immediate family undertake various official, ceremonial, diplomatic, as the monarchy is constitutional, the monarch is limited to non-partisan functions such as bestowing honours and appointing the Prime Minister. The monarch is, by tradition, commander-in-chief of the British Armed Forces, from 1603, when the Scottish monarch King James VI inherited the English throne as James I, both the English and Scottish kingdoms were ruled by a single sovereign. From 1649 to 1660, the tradition of monarchy was broken by the republican Commonwealth of England, the Act of Settlement 1701 excluded Roman Catholics, or those who married Catholics, from succession to the English throne. In 1707, the kingdoms of England and Scotland were merged to create the Kingdom of Great Britain, and in 1801, the British monarch became nominal head of the vast British Empire, which covered a quarter of the worlds surface at its greatest extent in 1921. After the Second World War, the vast majority of British colonies and territories became independent, George VI and his successor, Elizabeth II, adopted the title Head of the Commonwealth as a symbol of the free association of its independent member states. The United Kingdom and fifteen other Commonwealth monarchies that share the person as their monarch are called Commonwealth realms. In the uncodified Constitution of the United Kingdom, the Monarch is the Head of State, oaths of allegiance are made to the Queen and her lawful successors. God Save the Queen is the British national anthem, and the monarch appears on postage stamps, coins, the Monarch takes little direct part in Government. Executive power is exercised by Her Majestys Government, which comprises Ministers, primarily the Prime Minister and the Cabinet and they have the direction of the Armed Forces of the Crown, the Civil Service and other Crown Servants such as the Diplomatic and Secret Services. Judicial power is vested in the Judiciary, who by constitution, the Church of England, of which the Monarch is the head, has its own legislative, judicial and executive structures. Powers independent of government are legally granted to public bodies by statute or Statutory Instrument such as an Order in Council. The Sovereigns role as a monarch is largely limited to non-partisan functions. This role has been recognised since the 19th century, the constitutional writer Walter Bagehot identified the monarchy in 1867 as the dignified part rather than the efficient part of government. Whenever necessary, the Monarch is responsible for appointing a new Prime Minister, the Prime Minister takes office by attending the Monarch in private audience, and after kissing hands that appointment is immediately effective without any other formality or instrument. Since 1945, there have only been two hung parliaments, the first followed the February 1974 general election when Harold Wilson was appointed Prime Minister after Edward Heath resigned following his failure to form a coalition. Although Wilsons Labour Party did not have a majority, they were the largest party, the second followed the May 2010 general election, in which the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats agreed to form the first coalition government since World War II

4.
George I of Great Britain
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George I was King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1 August 1714 until his death, and ruler of the Duchy and Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg in the Holy Roman Empire from 1698. George was born in Hanover and inherited the titles and lands of the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg from his father, a succession of European wars expanded his German domains during his lifetime, and in 1708 he was ratified as prince-elector of Hanover. At the age of 54, after the death of his second cousin Queen Anne of Great Britain, in reaction, Jacobites attempted to depose George and replace him with Annes Catholic half-brother, James Francis Edward Stuart, but their attempts failed. During Georges reign, the powers of the monarchy diminished and Britain began a transition to the system of cabinet government led by a prime minister. Towards the end of his reign, actual power was held by Sir Robert Walpole. George died of a stroke on a trip to his native Hanover, George was born on 28 May 1660 in Hanover in the Holy Roman Empire. He was the eldest son of Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Sophia was the granddaughter of King James I of England through her mother, Elizabeth of Bohemia. For the first year of his life, George was the heir to the German territories of his father. In 1661 Georges brother, Frederick Augustus, was born and the two boys were brought up together, after Sophias tour she bore Ernest Augustus another four sons and a daughter. In her letters, Sophia describes George as a responsible, conscientious child who set an example to his brothers and sisters. In 1679 another uncle died unexpectedly without sons and Ernest Augustus became reigning Duke of Calenberg-Göttingen, Georges surviving uncle, George William of Celle, had married his mistress in order to legitimise his only daughter, Sophia Dorothea of Celle, but looked unlikely to have any further children. Under Salic law, where inheritance of territory was restricted to the male line, in 1682, the family agreed to adopt the principle of primogeniture, meaning George would inherit all the territory and not have to share it with his brothers. The same year, George married his first cousin, Sophia Dorothea of Celle, the marriage of state was arranged primarily as it ensured a healthy annual income and assisted the eventual unification of Hanover and Celle. His mother was at first against the marriage because she looked down on Sophia Dorotheas mother and she was eventually won over by the advantages inherent in the marriage. In 1683, George and his brother, Frederick Augustus, served in the Great Turkish War at the Battle of Vienna, and Sophia Dorothea bore George a son, George Augustus. The following year, Frederick Augustus was informed of the adoption of primogeniture and it led to a breach between father and son, and between the brothers, that lasted until Frederick Augustuss death in battle in 1690. With the imminent formation of a single Hanoverian state, and the Hanoverians continuing contributions to the Empires wars, Georges prospects were now better than ever as the sole heir to his fathers electorate and his uncles duchy. Sophia Dorothea had a child, a daughter named after her, in 1687

5.
Secretary of State for Scotland
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Her Majestys Principal Secretary of State for Scotland is the principal minister of Her Majestys Government in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland representing Scotland. He heads the Scotland Office, a government department based in London, the post was created soon after the Union of the Crowns, but was abolished in 1746, following the Jacobite rebellion. Scottish affairs thereafter were managed by the Lord Advocate until 1827, in 1885 the post of Secretary for Scotland was re-created, with the incumbent usually in the Cabinet. In 1926 this post was upgraded to a full Secretary of State appointment, consequently, the role of Secretary of State for Scotland has been diminished. A recent Scottish Secretary, Des Browne, held the post whilst simultaneously being Secretary of State for Defence, the current Secretary of State for Scotland is David Mundell. John Erskine, 22nd Earl of Mar had served as Secretary of State of an independent Scotland since 1705, following the Acts of Union 1707, he remained in office. The post of Secretary of State for Scotland existed briefly after the Union of the Parliament of Scotland, after the rising, responsibility for Scotland lay primarily with the office of the Home Secretary, usually exercised by the Lord Advocate. The Secretary for Scotland was chief minister in charge of the Scottish Office in the United Kingdom government,1885 saw the creation of the Scottish Office and the post of Secretary for Scotland. From 1892 the Secretary for Scotland sat in cabinet, the Secretary for Scotland post was upgraded to full Secretary of State rank as Secretary of State for Scotland in 1926. All Secretaries for Scotland also held the post of Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland, the post of Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland was held ex officio by Secretaries of State for Scotland from 1926 to 1999. Secretaries of State for Scotland since Donald Dewar have not been Keepers of the Great Seal, with the rise of the SNP in the Scottish and British parliaments and the resultant interest in Scottish Independence, the Secretary of states role has also subsequently increased in prominence. The Scotland office itself has received an increase in budget of 20% from 2013 to 2017 with a 14. 4% increase in 2015/16 alone. The UK governments website lists the Secretary of State for Scotlands responsibilities as being, The main role of the Scottish Secretary is to promote, other responsibilities include promoting partnership between the UK government and the Scottish government, and relations between the 2 Parliaments. This seeming lack of responsibility has in recent years seen calls for the scrapping of the role and the wider department of the Scottish office itself by opposition MPs

6.
Charles Edward Stuart
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This claim was based on his status as the eldest son of James Francis Edward Stuart, himself the son of James VII and II. Charles is perhaps best known as the instigator of the unsuccessful Jacobite uprising of 1745, the uprising ended in defeat at the Battle of Culloden, effectively terminating the Jacobite cause. Jacobites supported the Stuart claim because they hoped for religious toleration for Roman Catholics, Charless flight from Scotland after the uprising has rendered him a romantic figure of heroic failure in some later representations. In 1759 he was involved in a French plan to invade Britain, Charles was born in the Palazzo Muti, Rome, Italy, on 31 December 1720, where his father had been given a residence by Pope Clement XI. He spent almost all his childhood in Rome and Bologna and he had a privileged childhood in Rome, where he was brought up Catholic in a loving but argumentative family. Regaining the thrones of England and Scotland for the Stuarts was a constant topic of conversation in the household, principally reflected in his fathers often morose and his grandfather, James II of England and VII of Scotland, ruled the country from 1685 to 1688. He was deposed when Parliament invited the Dutch Protestant William III and his wife Princess Mary, King James eldest daughter, Many Protestants, including a number of prominent parliamentarians, had been worried that King James aimed to return England to the Catholic fold. Since the exile of James, the Jacobite Cause had striven to return the Stuarts to the thrones of England and Scotland, Charles Edward played a major part in the pursuit of this goal. In 1734, Charles Edward observed the French and Spanish siege of Gaeta, the invasion never materialised, as the invasion fleet was scattered by a storm. By the time the fleet regrouped, the British fleet realised the diversion that had deceived them, undeterred, Charles Edward was determined to continue his quest for the restoration of the Stuarts. In December 1743, Charless father named him Prince Regent, giving him authority to act in his name, eighteen months later, he led a French-backed rebellion intended to place his father on the thrones of England and Scotland. Charles had hoped for support from a French fleet, but it was damaged by storms. The Jacobite cause was supported by many Highland clans, both Catholic and Protestant. Charles hoped for a welcome from these clans to start an insurgency by Jacobites throughout Britain. He raised his fathers standard at Glenfinnan and gathered a large enough to enable him to march on Edinburgh. The city, under the control of the Lord Provost Archibald Stewart, while he was in Edinburgh a portrait of Charles was painted by the artist Allan Ramsay, which survives in the collection of the Earl of Wemyss at Gosford House. On 21 September 1745, he defeated the government army in Scotland at the Battle of Prestonpans. The government army was led by General Sir John Cope, by November, Charles was marching south at the head of approximately 6,000 men

7.
Politics of Scotland
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Scotland is a country which is part of the United Kingdom. The UK is de jure a unitary state, and the Parliament of the United Kingdom, located at Westminster, London, is sovereign over the whole state. However, since the late 1990s, a system of devolution has emerged in the UK, under which Scotland, Wales, Scotland entered into a political union with England in 1707, and since then has sent representatives to the Palace of Westminster, which became the British parliament. In 1999, an 129-member Scottish Parliament was established in Edinburgh, it has power to make law in Scotland. In the UK government, Scottish affairs are represented by the Secretary of State for Scotland, the Scottish Government is headed by a First Minister, who is the leader of the political party with the most support in the Scottish Parliament, currently Nicola Sturgeon MSP. The head of state in Scotland is the British monarch, currently Queen Elizabeth II, as the UK is part of the European Union, Scotland also elects six Members to sit in the European Parliament. Scotland can best be described as having a multi-party system, in the Scottish Parliament, the centre-left pro-independence Scottish National Party is the party which forms the government, it currently holds a plurality of seats in the parliament. Opposition parties include the Scottish Labour Party, the Scottish Conservative Party, the Scottish Liberal Democrats, elections are held once every five years, with 73 Members being elected to represent constituencies, and the remaining 56 elected via a system of proportional representation. At Westminster, Scotland is represented by 56 MPs from the Scottish National Party, and 1 MP each from the Labour Party, the Conservative Party, today, the creation of an independent Scotland outside the United Kingdom remains a prominent issue. On 18 September 2014, the people of Scotland voted in a referendum on whether to become independent, the party with the largest number of seats in the Scottish Parliament is the Scottish National Party, which campaigns for Scottish independence. The current First Minister of Scotland is SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon, the previous First Minister, Alex Salmond, led the SNP to an overall majority victory in the May 2011 general election, which was then lost in 2016 and now forms a minority government. Other parties represented in the parliament are the Labour Party, Conservative Party which form the opposition, Liberal Democrats. The next Scottish Parliament election is due to be held in May 2021 and this has been done on a number of occasions where it has been seen as either more efficient, or more politically expedient to have the legislation considered by Westminster. The Scotland Office is a department of the United Kingdom government, the current Secretary of State for Scotland is David Mundell MP, a Conservative. Until 1999, Scottish peers were entitled to sit in the House of Lords, the main political debate in Scotland tends to revolve around attitudes to the constitutional question. Under the pressure of growing support for Scottish independence a policy of devolution had been advocated by all three GB-wide parties to some degree during their history. Now that devolution has occurred, the argument about Scotlands constitutional status is over whether the Scottish Parliament should accrue additional powers. To clarify these issues, the SNP-led Scottish Executive published Choosing Scotlands Future, the programmes of legislation enacted by the Scottish Parliament have seen the divergence in the provision of public services compared to the rest of the United Kingdom

8.
Loch of Strathbeg
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The Loch of Strathbeg is a designated Special Protection Area for wildlife conservation purposes. It is located near to Rattray and Crimond in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, the loch is maintained by the RSPB and around the loch there are three hides from which visitors may watch the birds and other wildlife. Access to the loch is through Crimond airfield where there is a car park at the edge of the reserve, there is also the Starnafin Centre from which visitors may also watch the birds from and find out more information about which birds and animals are present locally. The RSPB records over 260 species of bird,280 species of insect and 26 species of mammal at the reserve, the loch is a very recent creation of geological times, forming naturally in a massive storm in 1720. The lagoon, where the loch is now, its small harbour Starny Keppie, a historical account says that the storm blocked the outlet of the stream called the burn of Strathbeg into the sea after which it flowed directly into the loch. There is another stream, the Burn o’ Rattra flowing into the loch, ordnance Survey mapping of the Loch shows four streams and one exit point into the north sea. In 1943, Loch of Strathbeg was used by the Luftwaffe as an area to drop supplies to spies in the area, the area to the North of the loch was normally the drop point. One drop in 1943 was set up by the British to use an agent to drop a radio, money. At the end of World War 2, there was a large beach Minefield at Rattray. During land mine clearance, high pressure water pumps were used at the Loch of Strathbeg to provide a supply of water to jetting nozzles used to out land mines from the sand dunes. This work was carried out by 11th Coy Bomb disposal led my Major W. M. Hewitt

9.
Archibald Campbell, 3rd Duke of Argyll
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Archibald Campbell, 3rd Duke of Argyll, 1st Earl of Ilay was a Scottish nobleman, politician, lawyer, businessman, and soldier. He was known as Lord Archibald Campbell from 1703 to 1706, and as the Earl of Ilay from 1706 until 1743 and he was the dominant political leader in Scotland in his day, and was involved in many civic projects. He was the first cousin once removed of Lord William Campbell and he was educated at Eton College and later at the University of Glasgow and then Utrecht University, where he studied civil law. He was appointed Lord High Treasurer of Scotland by Queen Anne in 1705 and he supported his brother, John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll, earning him the title of Earl of Ilay in 1706. Following the treaty of union he was elected as one of the sixteen Scottish peers to sit in the House of Lords and his military career, which was less successful than his brothers, was somewhat distinguished. He obtained the Colonelcy of the newly formed 36th Regiment of Foot in 1701, in 1711 he was appointed to the Privy Council. Many called him the most powerful man in Scotland, at least until the era of Henry Dundas, prime Minister Robert Walpole gave Campbell control over the royal patronage in Scotland. That became his base of power, he used it to control the votes of the other Scottish peers in the election of 16 representative peers to the British Parliament in London. Lord Ilay played a role in establishing The Faculty of Medicine at the University of Edinburgh in 1726. He was one of the founders of the Royal Bank of Scotland in 1727 and his portrait has appeared on the front of all Royal Bank of Scotland banknotes, and as a watermark on the notes, since they were redesigned in 1987. The portrait is based on a painting by Allan Ramsay, in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and he succeeded his brother to the title of Duke of Argyll in October 1743. He worked on Inveraray Castle, his brothers estate, which was finished in the 1750s, however, he never lived in it and he is buried at Kilmun Parish Church. He was married to Anne Whitfield about 1712, but had no male issue at his death. In his will, he left his English property to his mistress Ann Williams and his titles passed to his cousin, the son of his fathers brother John Campbell of Mamore. The Duke established an estate at Whitton Park, Whitton in Middlesex in 1722 on land that had enclosed some years earlier from Hounslow Heath. The Duke was a gardener and he imported large numbers of exotic species of plants. He was nicknamed the Treemonger by Horace Walpole, on his death, many of these, including mature trees, were moved by his nephew, the third Earl of Bute, to the Princess of Wales new garden at Kew. This later became Kew Gardens and some of the Dukes trees are still to be there to this day

10.
Rattray, Aberdeenshire
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However, there is still a small modern settlement in the area. The nearby lagoon, Strathbeg Bay had been an open estuary which was navigable to trading ships suiting itself to Starny Keppie harbour around which Rattray flourished, the harbour was guarded by two of the Nine Castles of Knuckle. Still clearly visible today, the ruined St Marys Chapel was built as a place of worship by the Comyn family at the same time as the construction of the Castle of Rattray. To the west of Rattray on the banks of Loch Strathbeg is the historical site Battle Fauld, the name most likely comes from the scene of a conflict with the Danes in the time of their later invasions. The ballad Sir James the Rose was set in Battle Fauld where he is supposedly buried, HMS Merganser Rattray Head Lighthouse history Web Historian Rattray Lighthouse Web Historians Guide to Rattray Rattray and other places in NE Scotland deserted as a result of shifting sand